Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said May 4 that Russian President Vladimir Putin must be brought to justice for his war in Ukraine. Zelensky was addressing The Hague during a visit to the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling for a new international tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression. Zelenski stressed: “We all want to see Vladimir here, in the Hague… and I am sure we will see that happen when we win. And we will win.” The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March over the forced deportation of children from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. (Jurist)
Revelations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine continue to mount. Two former fighters for Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary outet told Russian opposition media site Gulagu.net last month how they had killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians, including children, as well as prisoners of war when fighting in Donetsk oblast. The two men, ex-prisoners who were “personally pardoned” by Putin in exchange for recruitment as mercenaries, admitted that they participated in a general massacre of the population of areas taken by Wagner in the towns of Soledar and Bakhmut—”women, men, elderly, and children.” (Kyiv Independent)
Putin on May 5 signed a decree under which Ukrainian citizens living in the Russian-annexed oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia must either accept Russian citizenship or face forcible deportation by July 1, 2024. (DW)
Photo: OSeveno/WikiMedia
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UN rights office details atrocities by Russian armed forces
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine on June 27 released a report which details the arbitrary detention, torture, and killing of civilians by Russian armed forces in the context of the invasion of Ukraine.
The report describes the Russian Federation’s widespread practice of arbitrarily detaining civilians in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine. The monitoring mission documented 864 individual cases of arbitrary civilian detention by Russian forces, for reasons including “their perceived support of Ukraine, their status as former Ukrainian servicepersons, or their perceived political opinion or affiliation.” The report also notes 75 cases in which civilians were arbitrarily detained by Ukrainian armed forces.
The report finds that “many civilian detainees were held incommunicado, in unofficial places of detention, often in deplorable conditions,” which at times included being transferred to other occupied regions in Ukraine or to Russia.
The report further describes cases in which civilians had been tortured and ill-treated by Russian forces during their detention. It also details the summary execution of 77 civilians while they were arbitrarily detained by the Russian Federation. (Jurist)
Ukraine charges Russian politician with war crimes
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced charges on June 30 against a Russian politician and two suspected Ukrainian collaborators for war crimes related to the alleged deportation of 48 orphans from the Kherson orphanage to Moscow. Their actions were classified as a violation of the laws and customs of war according to the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The suspects include a deputy of the State Duma, the head of the Department of Health Protection for the Military-Civil Administration of Kherson region, and the acting head doctor of the Kherson Regional Children’s Home. If found guilty, they could face up to 12 years in prison. (Jurist)
Moscow: 700,000 Ukraine children brought to Russia
Grigory Karasin, chair of the Russian Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, stated July 2 on his Telegram channel that over 700,000 Ukrainian children had been “given refuge” in Russia.
The announcement comes as the International Criminal Court seeks the arrest of President Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for the crime of “unlawful deportation and transfer” of Ukrainian children. (Jurist)
Russia’s new gulags for detained Ukrainian civilians
Russian authorities have imprisoned thousands of Ukrainian civilians, according to a new investigative report by the Associated Press. The non-combatants are being held both deep inside Russia and in occupied territories not far from front lines, where many are forced to dig trenches and graves. Newly uncovered documents reveal that the Kremlin plans to build up to 25 additional jails to hold Ukrainian civilians. (PRI)